It would be very useful to have available standardized micro-samples of various dry solids of interest in which the mass of each solid micro-sample and its exposure configuration is accurately predetermined and intact until exposed to a solvent or chemically reactive media. This would facilitate micro-techniques requiring the delivery of accurate micro-quantities of such dry solid to solvents and chemical solutions as well as facilitate investigation, both qualitatively and quantitatively of the effects of various solvents and chemically reactive media on such dry solids.
By way of illustration, there has long existed a need to facilitate the observation and/or quantification of weak chemical effects of reactive media on solids which are essentially water insoluble.
Weak chemical effects on water insoluble solids of various chemically reactive media, whether liquid, gas and/or vapor, can be difficult to meaningfully observe and accurately quantify consistently, for example, and without limitation, as in the observation or measurement of the chemical effect of weak acids such as fruit juice preparations on Hydroxy Apatite, a form of calcium phosphate which is similar in major respects to human tooth enamel.
Generally, this is due to the lack of simple procedures for accurately determining the relative minute change occuring over a short period of time in a conveniently recoverable solid sample of substantial size and mass. As a result, resort may be had to extremely long exposure and reaction times; or, stronger reactive media and/or reaction conditions (e.g., temperature) may be used to unrealistically accelerate or maximize the reaction to involve a greater proportion of the large sample, in order to be able to more conveniently observe or quantify the reaction, and then by extrapolation to estimate the reaction result over various other assumed time frames and conditions for a similiar but weaker reactive media on such solid.
In theory, orders of magnitude reduction in the initial mass of the solid sample could result in a much larger total percentage of the sample being reacted with the weak reactive media under standard conditions over conveniently brief, measured time periods so that by contrast the resulting change would be more immediately apparent and potentially more easily, accurately and realistically quantified by measurement.
Various means for holding small samples for exposure to various reactants are known. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos: 3,097,070; 3,220,300; 3,540,858; 3,799,742; 3,933,440; and, 4,770,856.
However, so far as is known, at the present time there is no simple procedure of general application by which multiple uniform micro-samples of dry solid, each intact and essentially of the same weight and physical configuration at the micro-gram level, are accurately and reproducibly prepared for convenient use in adding such solid to chemical solutions, or for convenient exposure to and retrieval as desired from reactive media so as to facilitate observation and accurate quantitative analysis of chemical effects of such reactive media on the solid by simple conventional techniques. At least, there is considerable need and room for improvements in this area.
Accordingly, a general object of the present invention is to provide such improvements in the form of a novel mounting structure incorporating a solid micro-sample of predetermined mass and exposure configuration intact therewith, as well as a method for accurately and reproducibly incorporating such micro-samples into such mounting structures.